6.14.2011

Easy-Peasy Pizza Dough

The recipe actually came from Teresa Guidice's cookbook Skinny Italian. I made the dough into four portions, rather than six. Between dinner Friday night and lunch Saturday, two pizza were enough for us! The other two balls of dough are sitting in the freezer waiting to make their debut.

(I know it looks like a lot of work but I promise, it really is easy-peasy. After you've done it once, you'll see how simple it actually is!)

What to Do:
1. Combine the water, oil, and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed.
2. Add the salt and flour, one cup at a time, until a you have a stiff, sticky dough. Once all the flour has been added, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes). Note, you may need to add more flour to get the right elasticity. I ended up using about 5 cups for this recipe.
3. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.
4. Cut into four (or six for smaller pizzas) equal pieces. Pour a couple tablespoons of oil into a baking dish and place each ball in the dish, turning to coat with the oil.
5. Leave a little space between the balls and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours or up to 3 days.Note: If you want to use the dough immediately, let the covered dough stand at room temperature until the balls double in size (about an hour and a half). If you want to freeze the dough and save it for another time, place each ball in a separate plastic freezer bag and freeze until ready to use. (I did not coat the extra dough in oil prior to freezing.)
6. If you refrigerated the dough, then a couple hours before baking, pour a few tablespoons of oil in a clean bowl. Re-coat the balls and cover again with plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature for about two hours until they double in size.
7. After the dough has doubled, drop each ball onto a lightly floured surface and press down to deflate the dough. Shape into a ball again, return to dish, and let stand to relax for 20 minutes.
8. The dough is now ready to be made into a pizza! Flatten the ball into a disk on a lightly floured surface. Dust the dough with a little flour and roll into a 10- to 12-inch round using a lightly floured rolling pin.
9. Preheat your oven to 475. Add whatever toppings you like to your yummy dough and bake for about 10-12 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Slice and enjoy!

A couple tips on making pizza dough:
-- I don't have a pizza stone so, instead, I place a large baking sheet in the oven while the oven is preheating so the baking sheet gets nice and hot.
-- Prep the pizza dough on a sheet of parchment paper. When the oven is ready, pull out the baking sheet (using a mitt of course!) and place the pizza (still on the parchment) onto the baking sheet. Easy peasy!
-- If you don't have a stand mixer with hook and paddle attachments, you can still make the dough by hand. You'll have to knead it on a well-floured surface until smooth and elastic. Takes a little more work but totally doable (or dough-able *hee hee hee*).
-- Of course, add whatever toppings you like, but keep in mind the dough is fairly thin so too many toppings can weigh it down. Also keep in mind that some toppings will shrink as they cook. I thought I put plenty of basil on ours but when it came out of the oven, there were just a few tiny specks of green in a sea of red!

PS - This little tweet totally made my day yesterday. I may have tweeted to tell Teresa we made her pizza dough recipe and she responded! I <3 her.